Zoot Talking Timeline

Recently I've been thinking about when Zoot has talked and when he's talked less.

1975: He doesn't talk at all in his first appearance (though I can't remember if he sings back-up vocals with Floyd and Janice), though in Sex and Violence all of his scenes involve him playing the saxaphone (I think he and Dr. Teeth were the only Electric Mayhem members who didn't make appearances outside of scenes with the band). Who knows if he would have spoken if he'd appeared in the controll room or At the Dance or somewhere else.

1976-1977: for the first season of TMS, he talks alot.

1977-1978: He talks less, but still talks a fair bit.

1978-1979: He starts to become a quiet character. During season three he only says one word ("Arriba!" in the Jean Stapleton episode), though I think he tried to talk in the Gilda Radner episode, when his saxaphone was stuck in his mouth (would this count as a "speaking" appearance?). And in The Muppet Movie he only gets two short lines.

1979-1980: Though he'd hardly gotten any dialogue the previous season, it seems Zoot was given a lot of dialogue this season. He has many lines in the Dizzy Gillesbie episode (in the musician joke segments, and one of the backstage scenes), and has conversations with Anne Murray and Liza Minelli. Though he is silent throughout the Dudley Moore episode (ditto with Janice).

1980-present: Seems he goes back to being short on words. I know he gets at least one line in season five ("That's very big of ya, Mac" to Mac Davis, before the closing number). Though he does get a lot of dialogue in The Great Muppet Caper (could it have been done to make up for Lips' silence?), but then he goes back to his silence. After getting two or three brief lines (would him uttering "Kermit!" in unison with Dr. Teeth count?) in MTM, it seems he doesn't talk again until The Jim Henson Hour (though I think the 30th anniversary special and MFC are his only in-between appearances), and then doesn't get dialogue between The Muppets at Walt Disney World and Muppet Treasure Island.

When I was a kid, I noticed Zoot not talking that much and I brought it up every time a Muppet film was on. I also like to note how he talked almost never in The Muppet Movie and then in The Great Muppet Caper he has more noticeable dialogue while Lips takes his place so to speak with next to no lines.

I guess we should probaby count his line in MTI as well asking which side the band was on. (With the pirates or with the frog captain.)

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I already pointed out that he didn't have any dialogue between the Walt Disney World special and MTI (though I forgot about his line in Muppet Vision 3D, and also forget if he spoke in any of the Disney stage shows with the Muppets).